M. Night's films are so formulaic, it's not even funny. After the Sixth Sense, I never found his stuff even worthy of being passable. I completely agree with what lord_genghis said about the "ha, you didn't expect that did you!? I'm so great" bit. That's the impression that I get from seeing most of his movies. And not to deride him for the heck of it, but his tiny cameos just make me feel like he's attempting to attain some sort of cult status =/

I remember few years back when I was asked if I wanted to check out his then latest movie 'The Happening', I nonchalantly replied, "Not happening".

Slingblade: hrhm, I reckon this was a well written, slow paced, character driven movie. It was quite good and memorable. I don't like Billy Bob Thornton but here his performance was great, very believable and fascinating. I liked the charm of it, the subtle darkness that doesn't get heavy handed, the pacing, and the way they handled the gradual build up and last few scenes.

Oh my god, that movie was so bad it was almost hilarious. I rented it at random with a friend of mine years ago and we had no idea what was in store for us. After a while we both got fed up with trying to take it seriously and started riffing over it; if you remember, at one point Carrey's character says "what is 23?" and then pauses and looks up at a stained-glass window. I thought of the stupidest thing I could think of, and blurted out "is it god?" only for the character himself to say that exact line a split-second later. Shame on me for thinking I could come up with something dumber than the movie could.

I had a similar experience with The Orphan. I didnt want to see it in the first place and knew the twist beforehand. The whole movie felt cliche, especially the "scares". Towards the end, when the mom and Ester fight, I said "its going to show her gone", right after the mom and kids leave and dont even bother to check to see if she's actually dead. Maybe 10 seconds later, it showed her gone and I nearly pissed myself laughing so hard. Yet, a bunch of giels screamed.

I actually loved Orphan. The scares were terrible and the twist predictable, but the script and dialog were absolute gold and the performances were understated and always enjoyable. Not really a horror film at all--just a slickly designed drama with a creepy third act.

I actually loved Orphan. The scares were terrible and the twist predictable, but the script and dialog were absolute gold and the performances were understated and always enjoyable. Not really a horror film at all--just a slickly designed drama with a creepy third act.

My friend that was dying to see that was obsessed with Sorority Row. He bitched at me for weeks cause I said I didnt want to see it and how I dragged him to a bunch of movies(namely lord of the rings and star wars, which he said he would see). Anyway, before it came out, the scenes online showed every death and the killer/the reveal was one of the lamest. I almost forgot Perfect Getaway, which I nearly fell asleep through.

Orphan and Perfect Getaway are both first rate horror/thriller films. Perfect Getaway especially is just a ton of fun and has a lot of bounce and energy to it, and I'm always invested every time. Orphan is a dark, twisted and kick ass horror film and probably the best example of the completely modernized horror flick that I can think of, probably because it never uses the supernatural as a crutch and keeps the focus squarely on immediate, bone-shaking terror that never leaves the realm of human characters and situations. Both are very good, clever movies that are about more than just your generic scares and plot twists - there is real merit underneath both plot twists and some genuinely good, strong writing and tension, plus good characters in both films. You can't just watch movies like these in the mindset of "oh, I know the plot twist; it sucks now." There's more to them than that.

I wish someone would create a solid modern slasher flick. Something along the lines of the original Halloween. No supernatural haunted house bullshit, just a deranged maniac with a knife (or whatever) killing for no reason. I always enjoyed that fact about Halloween... that there was no explanation... no 'reason' for the killing... always thought it added a much more real aspect to the film and made it much scarier than a lot of it's contemporaries. I think with the right director and treatment a modern slasher flick could be pulled off rather well without being a mockery of the greats of the past and turning into some 'teen' slop. Make it dark, make it foreboding, make is suspenseful, and make it believable.

Recently I've watch 'House of a 1000 Corpses", the Rob Zombie movie- The only one I haven't seen besides it's sequel, "The devils Rejects". I'm personally not a fan of his music, but I love his movies. I'd say it was about a 4/5.

Also, can anyone reccomend any movies similar to movies like "May" (Lucky Mckee)?If so I'd appreciate it.

I wish someone would create a solid modern slasher flick. Something along the lines of the original Halloween. No supernatural haunted house bullshit, just a deranged maniac with a knife (or whatever) killing for no reason. I always enjoyed that fact about Halloween... that there was no explanation... no 'reason' for the killing... always thought it added a much more real aspect to the film and made it much scarier than a lot of it's contemporaries. I think with the right director and treatment a modern slasher flick could be pulled off rather well without being a mockery of the greats of the past and turning into some 'teen' slop. Make it dark, make it foreboding, make is suspenseful, and make it believable.

I wish for the opposite. I wish for slasher flicks to die off and never, ever come back. The original Black Christmas was the only (I repeat, only) good slasher movie. And even then, it was ridiculous.

I'll take atmospheric haunted house movies over slashers any day of the week.

I wish someone would create a solid modern slasher flick. Something along the lines of the original Halloween. No supernatural haunted house bullshit, just a deranged maniac with a knife (or whatever) killing for no reason. I always enjoyed that fact about Halloween... that there was no explanation... no 'reason' for the killing... always thought it added a much more real aspect to the film and made it much scarier than a lot of it's contemporaries. I think with the right director and treatment a modern slasher flick could be pulled off rather well without being a mockery of the greats of the past and turning into some 'teen' slop. Make it dark, make it foreboding, make is suspenseful, and make it believable.

Hatchet is great. It's nothing like Halloween but it's easily better than any Friday the 13th film or any of that series' knock offs. Totally goofy, gruesome slasher fun.

Seriously, Black Christmas is the only good slasher? What a crock of shit, Halloween and Maniac are two undeniable works of art that prove you wrong. I'll give you that there aren't many brilliant ones but there's a handful that are solid, such as Visiting Hours with Michael Ironside as an unstoppable wrecking machine.

Orphan and Perfect Getaway are both first rate horror/thriller films. Perfect Getaway especially is just a ton of fun and has a lot of bounce and energy to it, and I'm always invested every time. Orphan is a dark, twisted and kick ass horror film and probably the best example of the completely modernized horror flick that I can think of, probably because it never uses the supernatural as a crutch and keeps the focus squarely on immediate, bone-shaking terror that never leaves the realm of human characters and situations. Both are very good, clever movies that are about more than just your generic scares and plot twists - there is real merit underneath both plot twists and some genuinely good, strong writing and tension, plus good characters in both films. You can't just watch movies like these in the mindset of "oh, I know the plot twist; it sucks now." There's more to them than that.

Knowing the twist had nothing to do with why I didnt like it though. I saw just about every fake jump scare coming.

The mirror scene in the beginning(rolled my eyes). The playground, and the end part that I mentioned.

. There were probably more, but I dont remember. On a funny note, a coworker said Im too cynical, since I thought Paranormal Activity 4 was awful, along with a few others. Thing is, I didnt see, just a few scenes on youtube

Orphan and Perfect Getaway are both first rate horror/thriller films. Perfect Getaway especially is just a ton of fun and has a lot of bounce and energy to it, and I'm always invested every time. Orphan is a dark, twisted and kick ass horror film and probably the best example of the completely modernized horror flick that I can think of, probably because it never uses the supernatural as a crutch and keeps the focus squarely on immediate, bone-shaking terror that never leaves the realm of human characters and situations. Both are very good, clever movies that are about more than just your generic scares and plot twists - there is real merit underneath both plot twists and some genuinely good, strong writing and tension, plus good characters in both films. You can't just watch movies like these in the mindset of "oh, I know the plot twist; it sucks now." There's more to them than that.

Excuse the overload of emoticons; I am a bit too fond of them at times. I agree with your view of Perfect Getaway - quite awesome (surprisingly so), for pretty much the reasons you mentioned. But... Orphan? That was possibly the most ludicrous twist I've ever seen; I actually fell off the couch laughing when the, ahem, revelation was made. Few films, even good comedies, have made me have injure myself at home. I mean...

the creepy little girl turns out to be a height-challenged - hehehe- middle-aged escaped mental patient?

I grant that it was funny, in an unintentional way (maybe intentional - surely, the writers or actors must have had a giggle here or there), but it wasn't remotely believable; the film wasn't particularly terrifying before then, but after that it just made itself the candidate for a good drinking game. And I thought it was rather derivative;

The twist was pretty weird and kind of silly, but it's not any less plausible than Sleepaway Camp or most other old horror films anyway. If you don't like that, then I can't really see how you'd really get into a lot of old 80s horror films anyway - all of them had similarly off the wall things going on. And Orphan made up for it because the girl playing Esther was so damn good of an actress. That performance excuses any silliness in the twist, and the twist never bothered me much anyway.

What I meant by believable was that the film just focused on the family and what they were going through, and the fact that the characters and acting were good made it a step above most other films like it. The fact that it had so little of the tired cliches of other modern horror movies, such as a lengthy backstory on Esther or long scenes of the characters going to the library and reading books, helped it quite a bit too. And it made up for a few jump scares by having them be really good jump scares. The rest of the scary parts in the movie came from how far the movie pushed its characters, and how intense everything felt. Very viscerally heavy, gratifying horror movie.

Addams Family (1991) 3.5/5 {*}Raul Julia (excellent as always), Angelica Huston (stunning as Morticia), Christopher Lloyd (the lovable Fester), and Christina Ricci (playing Wednesday perfectly) star in this film version of the 1960s TV program. A fake Fester attempts to steal the family's fortune. Since its days as a comic, its had a hint of Jewish otherness to it, which can plainly be seen in the film version. Worth a watch.

Addams Family Values (1993) 4/5 {*}Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci return to star in the sequel to the 1991 film. This one is a bit edgier, dirtier, and more death-oriented than the first one while still retaining the slapstick humor found in the 1960s TV program. The Addams welcome a new addition to the family. To help with the baby they hire a nanny, who just so happens to be a black widow preying on Uncle Fester. Much more explicit "Jewish humor" can be found in this one. I enjoyed it a bit more than the first.

Absentia: A strange film to review. It was funded through donations on Kickstarter (ending up with a budget of a measly 70 thousand dollars). It lives and dies on it's atmosphere. With a very sparse drony score and long drawn out scenes of character development. This was less of an overt horror movie than I expected and more of a meditation on loss with horror elements. It really managed to instill a sense of dread while showing the viewer pretty much almost nothing. One shouldn't expect any gore, nudity or any other such thing going in. The atmosphere, cinematography, and acting (for amateurs/unknown) were all impressive. I don't want to give anything away about the story but I think it's worth seeing. Anyways, I'm about to watch Megan is Missing and I have no idea what to expect.

I've mentioned it before, but Megan is Missing really got me. The subject matter and the film itself and everything was effective enough, but that first girl (it's been a while so I can't remember if that was Megan or not) talks EXACTLY like my best friend. Her voice is a tad deeper and she's the total opposite of a party girl slut, but the way she talks, her mannerisms, they way she talks with her hands, her speech patterns, just everything reminds me so much of her that it just made the movie extra uncomfortable for me. It wasn't a character I was watching all that happen to, it was somebody very dear to me. So yeah, it's pretty safe to say I will not ever be watching it again

Alright, so my thoughts. I thought the set up being really long and unnerving, slowly moving to the point of no return was really effective. I've read reviews stating that the acting was poor, but they only made me wonder if those people had never met any stupid teenage girls before. It was spot on. Sure, that party may have been unrealistic to an extent, but I've been to similar parties and I tend to stay away from massive douches/intense tools like the dude who makes the girls pay for their entry. I think it did a good job of establishing things that actually go on. Getting into more spoilery territory now.

I thought the news bulletins did a good job of lightening the frankly heavy mood and were almost funny. I don't know if that was the intention, or if I'm just twisted, but it lulled me into a false sense of security. And then the last 20 minutes happen. I mean what the FUCK movie? First they show you those pictures, which were kind of shocking but nothing you can't find on the internet. But when it started showing all these truly terrible things happening to a character the movie had already spent an hour establishing, making you feel for. The most innocent and harmless 14 YEAR OLD GIRL in the movie, you just squirm. My stomach was actually churning. The way he made her eat disgusting food like a dog just so she could have her teddy bear. The way he opened that blue barrel and for a second she saw her rotting friend. The way that shot of him digging the grave and her screaming and pleading lasted for a really, really uncomfortably long time. I mean, the movie was exploitative. It's probably the most disturbing one I've seen, and I'm still thinking about it. I have no doubt that it perfectly makes it's point about internet predators but I can't help but wonder if I would have watched it had I known what it would contain. I can't say it was entertaining (not that it was a bad movie, I just took no pleasure in watching it).

I wish someone would create a solid modern slasher flick. Something along the lines of the original Halloween. No supernatural haunted house bullshit, just a deranged maniac with a knife (or whatever) killing for no reason. I always enjoyed that fact about Halloween... that there was no explanation... no 'reason' for the killing... always thought it added a much more real aspect to the film and made it much scarier than a lot of it's contemporaries. I think with the right director and treatment a modern slasher flick could be pulled off rather well without being a mockery of the greats of the past and turning into some 'teen' slop. Make it dark, make it foreboding, make is suspenseful, and make it believable.

Hatchet is great. It's nothing like Halloween but it's easily better than any Friday the 13th film or any of that series' knock offs. Totally goofy, gruesome slasher fun.

Ya know now that you mention it I've heard good things about Hatchet but never checked it out, I'll have to remedy that.

And cosigned VTS, Black Christmas is top tier for slasher flicks but I'd put Maniac as it's equal easily. I love atmospheric supernatural horror as well... The Exorcist is probably the greatest horror film of all time but it just seems like hollywood can't do that shit right anymore and that seems to be all they put out aside from remakes of films that don't need to be re-made. I watched Zodiac for the first time since it came out the other day and it just reminded me that there's a lot of room for genuine horror to be created by normal human beings and their sadistic obsessions. That film actually did a great job of creating a foreboding and ominous atmosphere and any of those kill scenes could have easily been in a slasher film.

Absentia was mind-numbingly stupid. The entire movie was its premise. Some people may find the fact that we know no more at the end than we do at the beginning artistic or clever, but to me it was just irritating. Ok, I know that it's implied that some thing was taking these people, but it wasn't expanded upon nearly enough to fulfill the movie's promise. A complete waste of time. At least the one actress was really pretty.

I only found that to be a small problem. I think not knowing was the whole point. And it did pretty much heavily imply what was happening, revealing small snippets at a time. I actually doubt they had the budget to show a big reveal.

If not knowing was the whole point, then anyone could just skip the movie entirely. Basically the movie is this: some guy is missing. Then more people go missing. The end. Anyone would assume that something took them; that's how kidnapping works. Whether it's human or not doesn't really matter when the movie does so little with it.

I don't have a problem with that aesthetic at all; I just didn't think this movie did a very good job with it. I don't know, I see all the things you're saying. Maybe I'm just not in the right mood tonight. The movie itself seemed well made, but it just didn't strike me well, so it's probably me. =P

Just watched Antichrist last night. Very slow paced, which I understand to be typical of Lars von Trier, and very creepy. I almost gave up about halfway through, as I was not interested in another psychological study of depression a la Melancholia, but I'm glad I stuck it out. The movie is very artistically done, and ultimately makes its

point. It is explicit and graphic in parts, and will make you recoil. If you saw Melancholia and found it as mind-numbingly dull as I did, I posit that it is largely due to Kirsten Dunst being a terrible actress, because Antichrist is proof that Lars here knows how to make a movie.

Absentia was mind-numbingly stupid. The entire movie was its premise. Some people may find the fact that we know no more at the end than we do at the beginning artistic or clever, but to me it was just irritating. Ok, I know that it's implied that some thing was taking these people, but it wasn't expanded upon nearly enough to fulfill the movie's promise. A complete waste of time. At least the one actress was really pretty.

There was plenty of implication enough of what was going on. It was ambiguous, but not so much that you couldn't figure it out with a little imagination. We knew just enough for the film to be a masterpiece, which it was.

Yeah, I was wrong to say that we didn't know any more at the end than we did at the beginning, because we certainly did. But that's as much as I can say for it. I just wasn't made to care what was happening, nor to whom it was happening, nor why. Take, for example, the younger sister. They say several times throughout the movie that she used to be a junkie, but that's as far as it goes. At no point did I actually believe that this girl ever used drugs in her life, because the way she was portrayed made her seem pretty straight-laced. So when they all disbelieve her when she says she saw some creature, it was struck me as idiotic. The tension and dread in the movie only built to a certain point, a low simmer as it were, and progressed exactly no further. No breaking point. No climax. No terrifying realization or revelation, as the masters like Lovecraft delivered. All we get is, 'Ooh, there's some hideous creature spiriting people away, isn't that scary?!' and all I can say is, 'No, not really.' I'm not even asking them to show the monster full-on and have a big bloodbath; I'm just asking them to flesh things out a little more and bring the terror home, because aside from an ill-defined glimpse or two of it, all you get is a bunch of hearsay, none of which elucidates the horror any more than my own guesses did - guesses which I already had before the movie even started! So no, this was not a masterpiece. A great idea, definitely, and by no means a complete failure, but mostly a failure? Absolutely.

Addendum: Just to explain why I'm so frustrated with this movie. I did not feel like the makers of this movie were inept, nor that the actors were incompetent. Quite the opposite. For the first quarter or third of this movie, I was really interested in what was going on, and I felt like it was building up to something great. But then it just... stopped. I think of it as an expert marksman who has a great, powerful gun, and he's in a shooting competition. 19 times out of 20, he's going to hit the bull's-eye, but for some reason, this one time, he botches the shot. This movie was really going for something remarkable, and didn't make it. So I'm a little frustrated, haha. Oh well, can't win 'em all. I'm glad everyone else liked it at least.

I haven't seen Absentia, but what you're describing sounds like my reaction to The Blair Witch Project. I thought it was quite good, the buildup of tension was excellent, only just as there's about to be some kind of big scary payoff in the abandoned house - it ends. I'm a proponent of 'less is more' when it comes to horror, but a horror movie still needs a proper climax where it reveals something.

_________________

MorbidBlood wrote:

So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

Insidious (2011) 4/5 {*}For being a newer horror film which did fairly well in the box office, I am surprised how much I enjoyed this one. A boy in a nice middle-class family falls from a ladder and succumbs to a coma. Soon unexplained events occur in the house which inspire the family to move. In their new home the unexplained events intensify so they decide to contact a "paranormal psychic." She informs the family that their comatose son is lost in his dreams and a demon is attempting to enter our dimension through the son's body. For a plot that ridiculous it was still very good!

Trick r Treat (2007) 4.5/5 {*}This is one of my favourite 2000s horror films. Ive been wanting to watch this for a few years now, but just got around to it recently. A few different stories overlap in this story about various people around a small town during their large Halloween celebration. Murders galore take place throughout the evening which keep you guessing as to who the culprit is. Many horror film traditions (punishment for a terrible act done decades earlier, a supernatural twist, etc) are sprinkled through this horrifying, yet comedic (read: campy) anthology (in a "22 Short Films About Springfield" sorta way). Very well written, this will become a classic.

failsafeman, I thought the climax of Blair Witch Project was awesome and the image of the guy staring at the wall was extremely memorable. it's definitely a stronger one than Absentia's (a movie I wouldn't consider a modern classic).

It was memorable I guess but it was much less so than a lot of the other 'scares' - by far the scariest part is when they find the lost guy's teeth wrapped up in the scrap of his clothing. When they go into the house I was like 'oh shit, what's going to happen, what's going to happen...' Then nothing happens, they just drop the cameras. Yeah you see the guy staring at the corner, sort of like what the serial killer guy did, but fuck, they should have shown SOMETHING more. The image of him staring into the corner was not, in itself, scary at all, when that was the very point at which they had to hammer home with something really disturbing. I know they had a small budget but with some thought they could have come up with something. For me the end just left me feeling empty, like great sex ending right before an orgasm. Maybe I'm just not as susceptible to basic scares as you guys, I don't know.

_________________

MorbidBlood wrote:

So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

I get what you mean. They built up everything so much and implied a lot of the supernatural and it ended up just being some ghost of a serial killer. I think that if the ending hadn't been so effective, I would have been dissapointed.